I just watched The Music Lovers for the first time in decades and thought it still very enjoyable. Glenda Jackson does a wonderful job, and Richard Chamberlain does OK -- the script doesn't give him a huge amount to work with. Full marks to three individuals - Ken Russell for superb direction, Melvyn Bragg for a script which gets a lot across about Tchaikovsky and his times, and Andre Previn (with the LSO) delivering large chunks of the music. Russell put a lot of work into his locations with the Queen's House at Greenwich standing in for St Petersburg and a splendid studio set for Moscow. The country house scenes were filmed at Wilton House and High Wycombe House. All very effective. The music includes lengthy snippets from the fourth and sixth symphonies, the first piano concerto, the Nutcracker and Swan Lake ballets, the Romeo and Juliet and 1812 overtures, Eugene Onegin, one of the string quartets and other pieces which slipped by me. That is a very impressive list! Unlike many people I love the 1812 fantasy sequence though could have done with less of the lunatic asylum. The railway carriage scene is one of my all time favourites, making brilliant use of the Pathetique. To my mind this movie and Women in Love are the best Russell films.

It's 19th century Tsarist Russia. Piano teacher Peter Ilych Tchaikovsky (Richard Chamberlain) struggles against his homosexuality by marrying Antonina Miliukova (Glenda Jackson) whom he can never truly satisfy.It's a lavish garish production taking advantage of the London Symphony Orchestra. It's also a rambling affair of long takes and obscure style. Sometimes it's masterful but more often than not, it is over-the-top crazy. The camera moves are all over the place with some very close up work. The music is a constant which gives a surreal dreamlike quality to the viewing. Chamberlain and Jackson have some crazy ridiculous attempted sex scenes. It's all over the top and considering Chamberlain's own secret homosexuality, it's all very poignant camp surrealism. They both leave it all on the screen. As with most biopics, I leave its authenticity to somebody more qualified although I don't accuracy is the main objective in this movie. I do have to admit that I have trouble getting through the whole two hours straight. It's a lot outlandish set pieces to endure.

I have not seen The Music Lovers since the 1970s but it remains vivid in my mind, regardless of its historical inaccuracy. Perhaps it was that I was just coming to terms with my homosexuality at the very time I saw it at 17. Nevertheless, I have its visual images burned into my mind and will do for the rest of my life. That says something about the imagination of the director. No other Russell film made such an impression on me, though, I have to say, so perhaps the effect had to do with my love of Tchaikovsky's music and my identification with his struggles. How I would like to have met Tchaikovsky! What a musical imagination he had! So many great works that will live forever.

As startling and entertaining a piece of cinema The Music Lovers is, on the whole it will disappoint those who (not unreasonably) may be expecting an accurate (if typically melodramatic) biopic.Rife with inaccuracies, The Music Lovers however occasionally elicits tantalising moments of truth which will be familiar to those who might have studied the great man and his music. The moment of madness during the composition of the violin concerto, Tchaikovsk'y mixing fact and fiction during the composition of Eugene Onegin; (resulting in his disastrous marriage), the brief glimpse of his benefactress during a stay at her apartments, the failed suicide attempt etc etc. However, these fascinating glimpses into well documented occurrences are undeveloped, and in their place we are left with a pastiche either of overly romanticised or histrionic scenes of theatrical fantasy.The real strength here lies in the actor's performances, even Richard Chaimberlain's stuffy and occasionally irritating performance has its moments and Glenda Jackson is wonderful as the vulnerable, unloved wife. The cinematography too is wonderful, evocative and colourful - perfectly in tune with the music of Tchaikovsk'y which also is used to great effect.If you can take Ken Russel's notorious penchant for the ridiculous (and at times, distasteful) and are not expecting the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, then The Music Lovers is worth watching if only for its being so gloriously over the top!